1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connecting element, and more particularly to a connecting element for connecting an antenna or heater arrangement to a radio or a power source, respectively. Such antenna or heater arrangements are usually formed by conductive traces, for instance, traces printed on car windows.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the past, many attempts have been made to establish an effective connection for an electrical wire arrangement serving as heater and/or radio antenna which is usually provided in or on the rear window of a car.
Such a wire arrangement is realized either by embedding wires into a pane or by coating the window with one or more traces of a conductive material, for example, silver paste, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,285,048. In order to connect this arrangement to the car radio or a power source, a connecting element providing a junction to which a connection cable can be attached has to be mounted onto the window. One way of making this external connection is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,610,618, where the outer perimeter of the window is coated with a conductive adhesive to connect the pane with the conductive periphery of the vehicle body to establish contact of the conductive traces placed on the window with the car circuitry.
Another known way to establish an electrical connection is to provide a metallic socket on the window. The prior art connecting element usually provides a contacting portion which connects to a conductive trace of the windows whenever the connecting element is soldered onto the socket. This way of mechanically pressing the contacting portion of the connecting element against a conductive trace happens to be rather unsatisfactory, since the contact might loosen after a time resulting in a lack of performance. Furthermore, since the prior art connection element has a significant elevation above the actual surface of the window, mechanical influences, such as hits occurring during transportation of the prepared car windows, can result in serious damage or may eventually destroy the soldering junction completely. In addition, the process of soldering is very time consuming and may eventually lead to the destruction of the window due to the resulting heat.
Yet another way of connecting such a connecting element is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,534,879. In this case, the car window consists of two panes laminated together. The wire arrangement consists of a conductive copper foil sandwiched between the laminated panes. In order to make the external connection, one portion of the foil is wrapped around one pane and is fixed on its backside. A press-stud, which is capable of accepting a plug connected to the car circuitry, is then soldered onto the foil. As stated above, this manner of connecting the window's wire arrangement will not withstand mechanical influences, for instance those occurring during transportation. Moreover, the actual window must be made of two panes to enable this kind of implementation of a copper foil, most certainly raising the cost of production significantly.